EDIT: Yes, we will do the #WeeklyMathematician again this year (2016-2017 school year)! The first fact will be tweeted on the first Friday in September. Thanks for following along! Scroll down to read how to join in. Enjoy!

One of my favorite college courses as a math major was History of Math. I was surprised that I enjoyed it, because I have never liked history.

I realized that I loved taking a peek into all different areas of math. It's really fun to see how each new concept was discovered and developed.

Since then, I have always wanted to incorporate just a small pinch of math history into my classes.

The problem was always the time and effort to implement it.

I've finally pulled together a super quick and easy way for everyone to follow along with my "mathematician of the week" journey this year!

With very minimal prep (I've already done the research and collected the facts), you can get this going in your own classroom this year.

Here's the deal --- I'm going to feed the weekly fact straight to you from mytwitter. And I'm going to do it each Friday for the following week! So all you have to do is copy the quick little mathematician fact onto your board before you head home for the weekend!

Then, at the end of each semester, I'll provide a free puzzle to review the mathematicians that were covered. I'll just send you the link in advance through the Twitter feed.

This would be a perfect handout for a substitute day towards the end of the semester, or as a change of pace before or after finals or winter break.

All you have to do is follow me on twitter and keep your eyes open for the hashtag #WeeklyMathematician to participate with your own class. Enjoy!

Mark your teacher planner for Fridays - All you have to do is jot the tweet onto the board each week.

Click here to follow if you want to do this in your math class this year.

Click the images to get the free downloads for the crossword puzzles that will help your students pull it all together! Recording sheets to use throughout the weeks are also included.

1st Semester

2nd Semester

Be sure to click the star to "follow" the TPT store when you download, so that you will get notifications as I post crosswords.

This post was featured on the August issue of Math Teachers at Play! I hope it sends some blog traffic your way :) You can check it out at
http://mrseteachesmath.blogspot.com/2015/08/math-teachers-at-play-89.html

Reply

Nicky

10/2/2015 06:18:38 am

Hi, I would like to teach my kids about the history of friction. Have you got any ideas or activities I can use? Thanks!!

Ahhh, yes!
For fractions, I would recommend checking out the Egyptians. Here are a few links:
http://www.storyofmathematics.com/egyptian.html
https://nrich.maths.org/2515
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcXqjfXRWF8
Enjoy!! The kids will love getting a deeper look at this to see where fractions came from and how the system differed from what we use now.
-Brigid

Reply

Lori

2/28/2016 04:05:59 pm

I just found this today and love it! I am always being asked the origins of math and would like to incorporate more history into my lessons. How can I catch up on all of the facts from first semester and what has been done for this semester?

To join in, you can find all the previous mathematicians and facts on my Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheMathGiraffe or by searching #WeeklyMathematician.

Maybe you can do one per day at this point to get through them over then next couple of months - Your class can have a daily mathematician instead until you catch up :)

The crosswords for both semesters are available for free in my TPT store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Math-Giraffe

Enjoy!! So excited for you to try it. I hope your kids like following along!

Thanks!
-Brigid

Reply

Terri

4/25/2016 10:03:13 pm

I also surprisingly loved my history of math class! So much that we have incorporated a mathematician project at the very end of each year. The kids love it too. Your history tweets will build their knowledge all year long - thanks!

Hi Karen,
The last one will be go out Dec. 16th.
We will be fitting in two mid-week tweets to get all the facts in for those who start break early so you'll have them all for the crossword. The last facts will be Dec.9, 13, and 16. Thanks!
-Brigid